Baroness Andrews: The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 provides legislative underpinning for Strong and Prosperous Communities—the local government White Paper. The latest version of the White Paper implementation plan was published on 1 November 2007 and provides details of the statutory guidance to be published and an estimated timeframe for consultation and implementation.
	The implementation plan can be found at the following link on the Communities and Local Government Office website at www.communities.gov.uk/documents/local government/pdf/532485.

Lord Malloch-Brown: We remain profoundly concerned about restrictions on religious freedom in Uzbekistan.
	The Uzbek authorities tightly control religious practice. A degree of tolerance is permitted to traditional churches which are seen as non-proselytising Christian groups; for example, Russian Orthodox Christians and Catholics. However, proselytising groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses are not able to register and even those which are registered, such as Baptists, can experience regular harassment and are vulnerable to criminal charges for unregistered religious activity or civil charges for possession of books or religious materials which the authorities regard as "missionary".
	Freedom of religion is a key part of the human rights dialogue that we and the EU have with the Uzbek authorities. Our embassy in Tashkent closely monitors freedom of religion and the treatment of Muslim and Christian worshippers, including through regular contacts with Christians of various denominations as well as a range of other religious contacts. We raise these issues with the Uzbek authorities bilaterally and with our EU colleagues through the EU-Uzbekistan Human Rights Dialogue. We publish our concerns in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office annual human rights report available on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website at www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1159199103169.